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Every day in India, 13 women die of unsafe abortions. It accounts for 10 to 12 per cent of total maternal deaths in Pakistan, and 7 per cent in Nepal. Unsafe abortions have increased three folds in the last decade in South Asia and this has become a pressing problem. These abortions are done without medical supervision, and include activities like inserting surgical devices or inapt herbs and spices or poison through the vaginal canal, consumption of non-OTC abortion pills without medical consultation, and perforation of the uterus. These methods are hazardous to the health of women as such abortions are performed by medically unqualified personnel and sometimes induced by the pregnant women on themselves and more often than not causes disability or worse, death.

Women in Jiangxi province who are at least 14 weeks pregnant now need to show medical evidence and receive government approval before getting an abortion, a policy provincial authorities say can help balance the sex ratio and protect unborn girls.

Jiangxi's Health and Family Planning Commission issued a notice on its website recently that women who are more than 14 weeks pregnant and who wish to have an abortion must have signed approvals by three medical professionals confirming that the procedure is medically necessary.

The rule sparked debate among Chinese netizens, with some saying it crossed the line between government power and private rights, and that it infringes upon women's freedom of choice.

Jiangxi Province has issued a new rule on having an abortion after the 14th week of pregnancy, saying the woman must have the signed consent of three medical professionals.

The province's Health and Family Planning Commission issued a notice recently saying that women who are pregnant for more than 14 weeks must have the signed approval of three medical professionals confirming that an abortion is medically necessary before any procedure, news site jxnews.com, a website affiliated with the Jiangxi government, reported on Thursday.

Recent news reports suggest that the Chinese Communist Party is considering abandoning one of its longest-running and most abusive practices: its reproduction planning policy, commonly known as the one-child policy. The decision comes as the nation faces a number of domestic crises resulting from the policy, from a rapidly aging labor force to severe gender imbalances. Returning reproductive rights to the people, however, does not exempt the Communist Party from responsibility for decades of trauma and murder committed under the euphemistic rubric of population planning.

According to the Chinese authorities, at least 360 million fetuses and infants have been killed since 1979, when the regime instituted the one-child policy in order to control the expanding population. Structurally, this has been a complex, nationwide affair, organized at the top echelons of power and implemented at the local levels, with perks and promotions in store for officials who meet quotas.

Left in the Dark on Contraception, Young Chinese Seek Abortions
With premarital sex on the rise and sex ed lacking, more young women are facing unintended pregnancies.

Cai Yiwen
2018-04-30

SHANGHAI — Lying on the operating table, Qing watched as her doctor arranged the medical instruments she’d be using, piece by piece. For the first time since she decided to have an abortion, she started to panic: She had barely known anything about the procedure when she made the decision, and now the reality of the imminent surgery was sinking in. When the teen woke up an hour later, the 7-week-old embryo inside her had been removed.

Qing, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, attends a high school in eastern China’s Fujian province that has never taught its students about sex or contraception, the 16-year-old said. Nor have her parents or other adults in her life ever broached such topics.

From bus stops to magazines, advertisements of clinics promising women a ‘fast’ and ‘painless’ abortion are commonplace in China, sending out the message that terminating a pregnancy is as easy as getting your nails done.

When it is rush hour in Beijing, street marketers often pass out flyers to people around busy subway stations. Most of the time, these pamphlets promote a new neighborhood restaurant or an upcoming real estate project.

Often, however, they promote abortion procedures at a local clinic. The pink and shiny ad campaigns advertise their abortion procedures in similar ways as beauty parlors or nail salons would market their services – a phenomenon which would be unimaginable in many western countries.

Nerida Williams says organisations like the International Planned Parenthood Federation continue to provide important family planning and health services to women despite the US funding block
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 24 September, 2017

A young woman lays back calmly, a nurse gently stroking her hand and asking a series of mundane questions to keep her at her ease. A doctor then starts performing a manual vacuum abortion.

This is taking place in the deep south of Nepal, which has legalised abortion. In theory, Nepali women can choose to discontinue their pregnancy safely and legally before the 12-week mark.

Are illegal abortions in Hong Kong related to ‘class problem’?High costs for private hospitals and stretched public health services blamed for women turning to black market or mainland to seek help over unwanted pregnancies

Saturday, 02 September, 2017

Increasing numbers of Hong Kong women are risking their lives by seeking illegal abortions at makeshift clinics in the city or on the mainland, an issue which a local lawmaker has condemned as a huge “class problem”.

Speaking to City Weekend after two women were jailed for carrying out illegal abortions in Hong Kong, Shiu Ka-chun, who represents the social welfare sector in the Legislative Council, said Hong Kong’s overburdened public hospitals meant not all pregnant women could get an abortion even if they were eligible. This forced them to resort to dangerous means out of desperation, he added.

Trump officials say the UN supports coercive abortion in China. But does it?

April 28, 2017
By Christina Asquith

In slashing $32 million of funding to the United Nations Populations Fund, also known as the UNFPA, earlier this month, the Trump administration slung a decade-old nefarious charge: The agency supports the coercive abortion of Chinese female fetuses.

To many in China, this came as a surprise.

“We regret this decision because the UNFPA was not helping Chinese women get abortions,” said Mengjun Tang, a Beijing-based fellow with the China Population and Development Research Center and who has worked with the UN. “UNFPA was helping to make sure women were not being pressured to have an abortion.”

The U.S. Government defunds UNFPA, putting the health and rights of the world’s most vulnerable girls and women at risk.

On Monday, the U.S. Government withdrew funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), signaling yet another affront to women’s health and rights. With the stroke of a pen, the Trump administration sent a clear message to millions of women and girls around the world, effectively indicating that their health—and lives—are fair game for political posturing.